


UnderCollege

by UglyBarnacle



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Friendzone, Multi, Original Character(s), Platonic Cuddling, please don't take any offensive jokes too seriously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:49:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8756848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyBarnacle/pseuds/UglyBarnacle
Summary: What happens when a student with resting bitch face shares a dorm with four monsters?





	1. It's a Start

The dorm was larger than she thought. She really should have figured it would've been bigger, considering the fact that it was supposed to house a total of six students in here. Oh, and there was already a microwave here, nice. It seemed to be a newer model.. must have came with the room. Jesus, this thing was one of those 'Dultech' brands, the kind cost a small fortune. What the hell. What kind of cheap college put out this kind of money for their student's appliances, when this room only cost around five thousand a year? No wonder this place couldn't even afford to have a bus route anymore. This place had its priorities in the same exact place that her old high school did; spend it all on pretty buildings at the expense of everything else. Hopefully not the curriculim. She came here to get an education. Well, mostly just a degree, honestly.  
"admiring my microwave?"

The question snapped her out of her stream of consciousness. "What?" Behind her was a short... oh. Oh. A skeleton. She knew all about the monsters, and she even expected to see one or two at this college, but.. oh, right. Those names on the registry. She'd thought they were foreigners or something, but even names like 'Undyne', and... what was it, 'Papyrus'.. those were weird even from another human culture. "You're... which.. which one are you?"

"..." The skeleton remained silent. He stretched out his hand towards her, however. What? Did he want her to take it? Oh, maybe like.. he wanted a handshake. Was that.. what the hell, was that a mitten? In late August?

Oh, what the hell.

Reaching out, she grabbed his hand.

"VVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT!" went the whoopie cushion in his hand.

"heh.. the 'ol whoopie cushion in the hand trick." He stood there, grinning just as widely as he was upon their meeting. "the name's Sans. nice to meet ya."

"Yeah.. oh, that's cool," she replied, trying to disregard what just happened. "Hey Sans. Nice to meet you too." She remembered seeing that name, now. Her eyes looked towards his general direction, but to him, they just seemed to be laying there.. not really looking at anything in particular. "So, you're one of my roommates.. I guess." She turned and looked through the propped open door. "Where are the others at?" Wait, she didn't even know if they were all in a group or not. It must have been the absurdity of all of the names that made her think that.

He stuffed his hand back into his pocket. "well, Undyne is helping Papyrus haul up his stuff, and Alphys.. i dunno. say, wasn't there another person staying here? since you and the four of us are accounted for.

Oh, shit. He was right. "Oh, you mean the-" She cut herself off before she said 'the normal one'. His name.. it was the only normal looking one out of the bunch. She was being a little hypocritical. Her name wasn't anything you'd usually hear. "Yeah, uh, well, I don't know where he is. I think his name was... oh, Kevin." It was Kevin.

"well, you haven't told me your name yet."

"Oh.." Yeah, where were her manners? "O'Sii, My name's O'Sii."

"huh, odd.." he commented. "never heard a human name like that."

Oh, fuck you.

"SANS!" Shit! O'Sii's eyebrows furrowed in both surprise and annoyance as her gaze shifted back to the open doorway, which allowed the overwhelmingly loud voice coming their way to fully assault her eardrums. "UNDYNE HAD TO HELP ALPYHS WITH HER THINGS, AND THIS IS BEGINNING TO BECOME VERY HEAVY! CAN YOU HELP ME WITH THIS?!" OH GOD!"

"here, let me get it," he offered, and in a moment, a huge red.. thing that looked like a car was being manuevered through the doorway.

"Oh, shit," O'Sii murmured when she realized she was in the way, and stepped off to the side as to not get hit in the face with it. What the fuck. That was a bed. A racecar shaped bed. What was his brother, like, five?

"THERE WE GO," his brother grunted as he carefully avoided the doorframe and got the bed through commons area. "WE'RE ALMOST THERE." Now that he was a few feet away from O'Sii, she could fully hear the sheer volume of his voice. Good god, was she going to have to put up with that the whole semester?

"WHAT?!?!" After wincing, O'Sii looked to see what the exclamation was about. Oh, he must have discovered that all of the rooms came with a bed. Which was clearly expressed on the registration site.

"WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH TWO BEDS?!"

"i guess you'll just have to put this one beside it for now."

"NOW I'LL HAVE TO CLIMB OUT OF TWO BEDS EVERY MORNING," he lamented.

O'Sii quickly sat on the couch out in the commons area before it looked like she was watching the two of them.

"OH!" This quickly brought her attention to the skeleton in front of her. Except, it was the other one. It was only then that she realized that he was comedically taller than what appeared to be his brother. "HUMAN! I HAVE NEGLECTED TO INTRODUCE MYSELF! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BUT IF YOU LIKE, YOU MAY JUST CALL ME PAPYRUS."

She was rather speechless at first, but after a moment, she was able to compose herself and return the greeting. "Yeah, uh.. hey.. my name's O'Sii."

"WOWIE! WHAT AN UNUSUAL HUMAN NAME."

Oh, fuck you, too.

She must have stayed silent for too long, because now he was talking again. "THE OTHER TWO THAT HAVE COME WITH US WILL BE HERE ANY MINUTE. THEIR NAMES ARE UNDYNE AND ALPHYS. UNDYNE USED TO GIVE ME ROYAL GUARD TRAINING WHEN WE WERE STILL UNDERGROUND, BUT NOW THAT THE ROYAL GUARD NO LONGER EXISTS, SHE JUST GIVES ME NON-ROYAL GUARD TRAINING. ALPHYS IS THE ONE THAT LIKES ANIME," and here, he bent down to give her the loudest whisper she ever heard, "BUT I THINK IT'S A LITTLE CHILDISH..."

She didn't actually catch most of that. She was too busy wondering if the other two were this.. eccentric. "Oh.. cool. Can't wait to meet them."

"IS THE OTHER HUMAN WITH YOU?"

"Well, uh.. no. I dunno. He'll probably be here sometime today." Well, he better be, for his own sake, considering this was move-in day.

"I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HIM, TOO! WE'RE ALL GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER, JUST YOU WAIT AND S-"

"Oh my god!" came a shout from the now open door to their immediate right. "I have soundproof headphones on, and I can still hear you!" The other human had apparently moved in already. And he was as short as the first skeleton.

"HUMAN! YOU'VE ARRIVED VERY EARLY!" Papyrus observed.

"Don't call me that," he ordered.

"I'M AFRAID I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR NAME IS!"

Something between annoyance and hatred was brewing in his squinted eyes. Backing up, he closed the door shut.

"Jeez," O'Sii commented. ".. I think his name was Kevin."

What's-his-name, Papyrus, looked visibly.. confused after the exchange. "WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?"

"No, ah.. probably on his period or something," she joked.

"WHAT'S A PERIOD? IS THAT A WEIRD HUMAN PHRASE?"

Oh my god. How the hell was she supposed to explain that to a monster?

"she just means he's a little cranky," Sans answered, hoping that would satisfy his curiosity.

"OH."

O'Sii wasn't exactly sure why she cared, but if he didn't know what a period was, there was probably gonna be a shit ton of other stuff he didn't know about either. She should probably inform him what a period was, at the very least.

No sooner had she opened her mouth when she felt his brother's gaze rest upon her. Suddenly, she didn't think telling him would be a very good idea. At least not in front of his brother. She really didn't want to leave the supposed adult monster in the dark about that kind of subject, if he was going to live the college life. It would be the equivalent of sending a child on his tricycle out to ride in a busy highway.

"......" Hm. It was awkwardly silent now.

"Who's stuff is this?" a rather rough-sounding voice enquired outside. Oh, for fuck's sake, she hadn't brought in her luggage.

"Yeah, that's, uh, mine..." she murmured to the fish-looking monster that was jogging through the door with her arms full of heavy luggage. "I'll just.." Why did she even bother? Heaving up her suitcase and backpack, O'Sii made her way back into the dorm, but found herself blocked by a dinosaur-monster.. thing. Carrying a dinosaur of a computer with her.

"O-oh my god! Am I in your way?" Fumbling with her computer, she carefully backed up the whole way to let the human through, despite the fact that it would have been faster to just take her stuff in.

"You're.. fine. Thanks." Thanks for nothing. But maybe she was being a little harsh. This dinosaur.. lizard.. seemed to have her heart in the right place. She'd give her that.

Now that her stuff was inside her room, she could do whatever else she felt like doing for the rest of the day. Which.. wow, it wasn't even noon yet, was it? She'd have enough time to.. do all that stuff that she never had time for. Which wasn't coming to mind at the moment. Yeah, wasn't that what always happened? Any time she would get the opportunity to accomplish something, all of those dreamt up 'sometime I'll do's would disappear.

Maybe she could go back out and be 'social'.

She'd need an energy drink for this.

Now that she had acquired the canned beverage, O'Sii was ripe and ready to go back out into the commons area and passively make small talk. A thin mist sprayed out as she thumbed the metal clip up, and as the liquid washed down her throat, she could feel her willingness to mingle soar.. up a couple of notches.

The same couch from before was still available. Oh, and look, that short skeleton was setting up a box TV. When was the last time she saw one of those? Sip. She never really bothered buying one of those.. it was cheaper to stream illegally. Or just watch it on WhoTube until some company took it down.

"alright, Paps, it's up."

"...DID YOU JUST CALL ME 'PAPS'?"

"yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"...WHY?"

"i dunno.. just thought it would be a cool nickname or something."

"...PLEASE DON'T CALL ME THAT EVER AGAIN."

"kay."

As soon as his bony finger pressed in the power button, the screen came to life, displaying a group of human ladies sitting behind a semicircular desk, and they were really going at.. whatever the hell they were talking about. Oh, shit, this was that story with the slime and that eight-year-old..

"Hey, uh.." God, they just set up their TV, and she was already commandeering it. "Could you just, uh.. turn that up a little? I swear, it'll only be, like, a minute.."

"sure thing," Sans replied, his head turning so she could see him wink.

The most vocal of the group of women was holding her hands up in an effort to shush the current speaker. "You know, I-I just.. cannot stress enough how horrible this situation for everyone involved-"

The token red-head spoke up. "-But.. But don't you think that something should be done about this? Of course-"

"I-"

"-Of course it's horrible for everyone involved! What my point is-is that don't you think, and I know this is hard for both families, but don't you think that this boy's family should have to pay some sort of restitution, I mean-"

"I-is this about that slime monster getting.. stepped on?"

This woman on the screen continued to make noise as O'Sii's attention was drawn to the lizard that had apparently finished packing. "Huh? Oh.. yeah, I think so.."

"Oh my god," she said as her hands came up to the sides of her head. "I was reading up on this on the way here!" She pulled out her phone. "Th-the article's only a day old, b-but I guess this talk show is already on it, huh?"

"Yeah."

The yellow monster stood there for an unbearably awkward moment, before speaking back up. "M-my name's Alphys, by the way..."

"Oh, nice, my name's O'Sii. Nice to meet you." The women were still going at it. "So, uh.. did the slime.. die...?" she asked with an uncertain twinge in her voice.

"..Yeah." Alphys twiddled her thumbs softly, her voice much less anxious and almost calm as she went on, "They've decided to have the memorial on top of Mt Ebott, at the end of the weekend."

"Oh, are you.. did you know them?"

"Not very well, but even after most of us monsters sort of spread out after we left the Underground, we still stick together as a community... even if long distances separate us."

"Oh.." That didn't feel like enough to respond with, yet she couldn't find too much else to say. "That's... nice." And now, she wanted to ask a question that couldn't possibly go over very well.. but hell, she really wanted to know what someone thought. "So, did they figure out what they'll do with the kid?"

"Oh, him? They.. I'm pretty sure they're not gonna press charges or anything.."

"Well, yeah, I mean, it really looks like it was just some.. horrible accident."

"Y-yeah.. I know.. god, that really has to be horrible for the kid, you know?"

"yeah, bet he feels pretty bad about killing an innocent person," Sans chimed in. "i'd hope so, anyway."

"ARE YOU THREE TALKING ABOUT THAT SLIME ACCIDENT?" Papyrus asked as he poked his head out of his bedroom door. "THAT'S A REAL SHAME WHAT HAPPENED. I HOPE THE HUMAN DIDN'T HURT HIM TOO BADLY."

"........." One could hear a pin drop, even on this carpeted floor.

"...don't worry about it-"

"Papyrus," O'Sii cut in, without realizing what she was doing. "The slime died."

The silence was even worse the second time.

"OH... THEN, WAS HE FROM THE CITY, BACK IN THE UNDERGROUND? N-NOT.. THE ONE THAT LIVED IN.. SN.. SN.."

"I-I.." Alphys stammered.

"Papyrus.." Undyne came out with a pair of pants hanging over her arm, ready to hang up. "..You know Mr. Slimoore? It was him. That's the one the human.." Her eyes were cast downward, but they seemed to narrow a bit. "Honestly, how hard is it to look where you're going?"

Oh, god.

"Seriously, if he just tried watching where he was walking, then there wouldn't be a dead slime's dust on his hands!" She crossed her wiry arms. "Don't the humans know that there are smaller monsters living here?"

"The kid was eight." O'Sii bit her tongue, surprised she had said that out loud. Normally, she could keep herself from making smartass comments, but it appeared that old habits died hard. "..It's a real shame what happened, though."

It was too late to mend her mistake. "What the hell? So it doesn't matter as much if some kid did it? Too bad for Mr. Slimemoore?!"

"..You're putting words in my mouth."

Undyne was about to fire back, but Papyrus cut in between them. "UNDYNE, HUMAN, PLEASE! THIS IS NO WAY TO MAKE FIRST IMPRESSIONS!"

"Yeah, uh.. look, I'm uh, real sorry if I came off as.. flippant or something." She wasn't. But sometimes you just had to suck it up and let the other person win.

"..Fine." After a moment, Undyne began to look kind of repentant. "I'm sorry for lashing out like that..."

This was gay.

"Yeah, uh, no problem." And she was kind of pissed at how that taller skeleton acted like she had equal blame. But she was looking too far into it, and this was nothing to get worked up about.

Hell, why didn't she just break the ice with everyone at once?

"Hey, ah, you guys want a soda? I have enough in my fridge for everyone, if you want." The college had one of those convenience stores on campus, so it wouldn't be a huge hassle to buy more. Plus, this was much easier than trying to gradually build up a conversation.

"WHAT A GENEROUS OFFER!"

"I'll pass," Undyne declined, her nose twisting a little in disgust at the mention of soda.

"I-I'll have some, thanks."

"thanks for treating us, O'Sii."

"Cool, I'll go get you some..." She emerged from her room carrying all three sodas in between both of her hands. After she had distributed them all as requested, Papyrus piped up, "AREN'T YOU FORGETTING SOMEONE?"

"... Oh, no, I already have an energy drink." She tapped the can sitting on the counter.

"I KNOW. I WAS REFERRING TO THE OTHER HUMAN."

"...Yeah, I don't really think he'd appreciate that."

"OF COURSE HE WOULD? WHO WOULDN'T APPRECIATE A REFRESHING BEVERAGE, GIVEN AS A TOKEN OF FRIENDSHIP?"

"That guy."

"NONSENSE!" Before anyone could say anything else, he ran into O'Sii's room - while she stared helplessly - and came back out with another can of soda. He then proceeded to sharply knock on Kevin's door. From where he was standing, he could hear the human saying something.

"Yeah, one of my roommates probably wants something." Listening even more closely, he could hear the occasional click of a mouse.

It took a full minute before he decided to knock again. This time, he could hear the slide of a chair across carpet.

"y'know, maybe he's just busy?"

To their surprise, the door finally swung open. "I'm in the middle of match, what do you want?"

"WOULD YOU LIKE A DRINK? WE'RE ALL HAVING ONE."

He exhaled and took the drink.

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME OUT AND JOIN US?"

"No." The door slammed shut. "Sorry about that.." Papyrus could hear him apologize to whoever he was online with.

"hey, don't worry about it, Pap."

"I'M SURE HE'S JUST BUSY."

"H-hey, listen, it's almost time for lunch, so why don't we all go down to eat? I-I mean, as long as you all have meal plans.."

"sure. Papyrus, you coming?"

"OF COURSE!"

"I guess I'll come too," Undyne said.

"O'Sii? Would you like to join us?"

Out of all the times she could have remembered, it suddenly came to mind what she had been planning on doing with her free time. But.. at this early an hour? She was inevitably going to go grab something to eat, anyways.. and these meals weren't going to use themselves up.

"Yeah, you know what, sure. I'll go."

"Then let's get going!" It seemed like Undyne was pretty excited to go eat.

The four monsters filed out of the door, leaving O'Sii to stand and watch as they left. Contemplatively, she watched them for a few more seconds, before following them out.


	2. Din-dins

"Oh, fuck." 

The statement was made so randomly, and at such a calm tone, that it made Papyrus do a double take. "HU- I MEAN O'SII! THERE'S NO USE FOR LANGUAGE LIKE THAT!"

"Oh, well.. I mean, I think I left my wallet in my room." 

"ARE YOU SURE IT ISN'T IN YOUR SATCHEL?" Indeed, she was carrying a tan, beat-up satchel on her shoulder, and it bumped against her side with every step she took towards the dining hall.

Like she wouldn't know to check her...

"Yeah."

"WELL, DON'T WORRY, I'LL COVER YOU FOR THIS ONE. "

"Oh, no, really, it's fine.. I could just go back and-"

"THAT'S WHAT GUEST MEALS ARE FOR! HELPING YOUR NEW COLLEGE ROOMMATE WHEN THEY FORGET THEIR WALLET."

He didn't seem to understand the concept of one night stands. At least, that's what she might use hers for. Maybe. 

"I'll, uh.. have to cover you back someday."

"I WOULD GRATUITOUSLY ACCEPT YOUR OFFER, BUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS NO NEED FOR IT! LOOK!" He whipped a wallet from what O'Sii had just realized was a piece of body armor around his chest. "I STORE EVERYTHING IN MY BATTLE BODY! WHICH I NEVER TAKE OFF. EVEN WHEN I SHOWER. EXCEPT ON DATES."

Ew. Nasty.

"Oh....?" She found it difficult to think of anything to say other than 'oh'. 

"YES, I FINALLY HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO WHEN I DATED FRISK!"

"Oh, is that your girlfriend?" 

"NO, WE KEPT IT TO ONE DATE. THINGS.. DIDN'T WORK OUT." 

"Sorry to hear about that.." In a way, she found herself actually meaning that. If things went the way he was describing, it sounded like he only had one date in his life so far. 

"YES, WE MADE IT TO THE BEDROOM, BUT I ULTIMATELY REALIZED THAT I DID NOT FEEL THE SAME WAY ABOUT FRISK."

That was a little too much information. "....Aw, well.. I hope things didn't end too poorly."

"OH, IT ENDED WONDERFULLY, IN FACT! FRISK IS ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIENDS! IN FACT, THEY'VE INVITED ME TO THEIR TENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY!"

Woah.

"...Their what birthday?"

"TENTH. THE ONE AFTER THEIR NINTH! OR WAS IT THEIR ELEVENTH BIRTHDAY? I'M ACTUALLY NOT SURE HOW OLD THEY'LL BE NOW. BUT IT'S DEFINITELY A SMALL NUMBER! KING  
ASGORE'S CLONE IS GOING TO PREPARE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR THEM, IN ONLY ONE MONTH, WE'LL ALL BE-"

Everything he was saying sort of rolled off her brain as she contemplated all of the possibilities that stemmed from this new information. This.. this could just be a cultural thing. Maybe.. no. That was still fucked up. As open-minded as she considered herself to be, she couldn't bring herself to condone child... yeesh...

"you okay there?"

"....." Her attention was gradually brought to the child-dater's brother. "What?" 

"just checkin' to see if you're okay. you were staring into space real weird."

"...Yeah, I'm fine." She might have laughed at cruel, sick jokes involving the subject before, but this.. really wasn't funny. As much as she hated to get involved in anything, this wasn't letting her conscience off easy. Wait, how exactly would she get involved, anyways? So far, she only had word of mouth to go by. And accusing someone of being a child diddler wasn't a very good way of staying in their friend group... ah, fuck it. She was looking too far into this. She'd have to hear more about this before she made any decisions.

"We're here! Everyone have your cards ready?"

"o'sii doesn't," chuckled Sans.

"I HAVE HER COVERED!"

If the circumstances were different, she really would have appreciated that. "Thanks."

"ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND!" Oh, did he consider the two of them friends already? That was quick. It might make getting studying done easier, if anything.

The lady standing at the check-in for the dining hall smiled at them as they approached the counter, but as Alphys noticed, her eyes were widened in a way that suggested that she might not exactly be comfortable serving.. their kind. "Hell-o-o, can I see your cards, pleeease?"

"HERE YOU ARE, MA'AM!" His boisterous voice seemed to make the lady flinch.

Coincidentally, O'Sii was digging around in her satchel, when she noticed her wallet sitting in the deepest crevice of it. "Oh, hey, Papyrus, uh.. you, uh, don't ne-"

"AND A GUEST MEAL FOR MY FRIEND BACK THERE!"

"Alright, I'll ring her up too," she answered. Fuck. Well, she tried. "Thanks, Papyrus.."

"CERTAINLY!"

"Alright, honey, there's a line waiting behind you."

Behind the group of monsters, there were about a dozen students accumulated, many of which were staring at the group in mild annoyance. They seemed to have chosen a busy hour to come by here.

The rest of the crew filed up and swiped their cards in a hurry, while O'Sii walked ahead of them and followed Papyrus to wherever spot he might choose to sit at. To her chagrin, it was in the middle of the goddamn cafe. The volume of every conversation taking place in the vast room seemed to be amplified at this very spot. Of course, the outspoken skeleton didn't seem to mind this one bit as he set his things down on one of the chairs. 

"This is... It's pretty loud in here, huh?" she hinted with a vague smile.

"IT CERTAINLY IS!" Papyrus scratched at his chin with a gloved thumb. "IF IT BOTHERS YOU, WE MIGHT TRY THAT SPOT BY THE WINDOWS."

Awfully kind.

"Sure, yeah, let's do that."

This area proved to be much quieter. As O'Sii hung her satchel on the corner of her chair, she sudenly became aware that Sans was in their presence, now. Even stranger than that, he had a plate full of food. This prompted a murmur of 'what the fuck' from O'Sii, but she decided to not dwell on it, and went to go get her own food.

"SO!" Her head whipped around to see the tall skeleton striding beside her. "I HEARD THIS COLLEGE HAD A WIDE SELECTION OF ITALTIAN CUISINE!"

"Yeah, uh.. I think they do."

"IT'S ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT REASONS WHY I CAME HERE! I CAN SAMPLE THEIR SPAGHETTI AND FURTHER PERFECT MY OWN PERSONAL RECIPE!"

"Mhmm..." 

"....I'LL GO OVER AND SEE WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER!" She watched as he ran off towards the Italian booth. Finally, she could go and get her food on her own. Let's see here, there was some hamburgers being served over to the left, a cute little condiment bar, a dessert section.. 

With a freshly made burger on her plate, and two chocolate chip cookies, O'Sii made her way back to the table, where Sans and Alphys were sitting. Silently, she sat down and took a bite out of her beef-laden sandwich.

"S-so, uh, O'Sii, did you decide what major you're going to g-go for?"

"Yeah, uh..." Brainfart. "........"

"Y-you, uh.. o-okay there?"

"..Undecided."

"W-well, that's interesting, I don't think anyone else I know hasn't decided yet.."

What the hell kind of snarky ass comment was that supposed to be?

"I mean, you don't have too many people to pick from." A bead of sweat swelled on the lizard's forehead as she began to stammer out some kind of reply. O'Sii supposed she should probably try to save this. "I mean, between me, and.. your.. buddies here..." Shit, she sounded like such an asshole. 

Luckily, Undyne was there to draw the attention away from her. Slamming her tray down onto the table, she grinned as she sat down next to her bewildered reptillean friend. "So! O'Sii, you have to tell us about yourself! Don't make us have to hold you by your hair!"

"Uh, wh-"

"UNDYNE, YOU'RE GONG TO SCARE HER AWAY!"

His voice was able to shock her out of her.. shock. "Oh.. so uh, about me.." She had to be one of the most boring, uninteresting people in the world.. well, as far as most people  
knew. But there had to be at least one or two things she could offer.. 

"So... I used to play bass when I was like, fifteen."

"....BOOOOoooo..." Undyne booed as she gave her a thumbs down.

Sheeesh. "...I'm.. part of the Honors Society here."

"O-Oh, th-that's really interesting, O'Sii!" Alphys encouraged. Apparently she hadn't taken what O'Sii said earlier to heart.

"Yeah, and uh.. I'm.. thinking about joining the, uh.. club for that."

"Th-there's a club for it? No one told me!"

"Oh, you're in it?" She probably should have figured as much, given the almost cartoonish scientist get-up she was wearing.

"Y-yeah, I guess we'll be seeing each other there, every uh.. e-every..."

"Wednesday."

"..W-Wednesday!"

Woo hoo.

"Yeah, you totally look excited," Undyne snorted.

"Wh- oh, uh... yeah.."

Everything simmered down into a stale, awkward silence. O'Sii finally began eating what she had picked out from the bar, ready to retreat into her own little zone. She watched absently as the various foodstuffs on her plate began to disappear. She hadn't really picked much out, had she? Everyone always seemed to have such variety. She had never really seen the point, anyway. Food was food.

"....HM."

"what?" 

"..IT'S QUIET."

"That's probably because no one's talking." O'Sii, upon saying this, went back to eating. She still had one more cookie to go before she could finish up here and head back to her  
dorm.

"Ugh, remember that.. _Kevin_ , kid?"

"O-oh my god, he was such a prick!"

"ALPHYS! IT ISN'T NICE TO TALK ABOUT PEOPLE BEHIND THEIR BACK!"

"Well, he is," O'Sii agreed. 

"O'SII!"

This earned a silent exhalation from the offending human. "It's objectively true. Until he shows some redeeming qualities, I'm going to assume he's a prick."

"yeah, i think i'm gonna go the same route with that one," Sans agreed, spooning some soggy cereal into his mouth.

"SANS!"

"Why do you care? If he was a prick to anyone in particular, it was probably you." Having no more cookies to eat, O'Sii sipped at her Mt Foo. 

"HE'S JUST HAVING A BAD DAY, THAT'S ALL! FIRST THING TOMORROW MORNING, I'LL WISH HIM A GOOD MORNING, AND BRIGHTEN UP HIS MOOD!"

"it's probably gonna go how it did earlier," O'Sii murmured into her cup.

"DON'T BE SUCH A NEGATIVE NANCY! KEVIN AND I WILL BE THE CLOSEST OF FRIENDS BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!"

"My name's.. mm, yeah," she almost corrected as she finished off her drink. This skeleton.. monster.. person. He was a tad bit naive. He clearly couldn't see that some people, such  
as Kevin, had no interest in making friends with the likes of him. And by that, she meant overly eager man-children.

"what's on your mind?"

Her eyes met the smaller one's hollow sockets. "What do you mean?"

"i dunno, you're kinda quiet." He slid a fry around an unholy blob of ketchup before tossing it in his mouth.

"Hm." 

The skeleton seemed satisfied with that response, or maybe he wasn't. O'Sii wouldn't have known, because she had completely stopped paying attention to him. She was looking over at those fish and lizard monsters, as something had caught her eye. Something about their behavior with each other was.. strange. While she hadn't seen them interact too much earlier, they now seemed to be a lot closer to each other. She didn't know, just.. something in their body language. That fish girl seemed to not be so goddamned tense when she was talking to the lizard girl. And the lizard girl's stutter didn't seem so bad when she was talking to the fish girl.

God, she really needed to hear their names again. Well, whatever it was between those two, she'd figure it out eventually. Or she'd probably just stop giving a shit. Probably the latter.

"Welp, I'm finished! What about you dorks?" the fish lady went.

"Yeah, I think I'm about ready to head out," the lizard girl answered.

"yeaup."

"WAIT, I HAVEN'T FINISHED MY SPAGHETTI YET!"

Mostly everybody was getting up to leave the table, with the exception of Papyrus, whose name O'Sii did remember. Fuck, now she actually kind of felt bad. "Yeah, you know what..  
I'm gonna sit here a little longer." Goddamnit. 

"YOU WILL?" The skeleton looked ecstatic. Maybe that was an understatement. His eyes were sparkling, despite the fact that O'Sii was pretty sure his eyes were hollow, and  
therefore would not have anything to reflect any light in the first place.. you know what, maybe it would be best to stop thinking about it. These monsters defied the most basic human principles of science as it was. The scientific community was pretty pissed about having to restructure their theories to include the strange reality that these magical beings so much as existed.

"...Yeah." O'Sii took her empty cup in hand, nails scratching at the clear, plastic surface. "..be right back," she reassured as she got up to go refill her cup from the soda fountain. 

Her vibrant hair never shifted to the side to tell that she had turned her head, and she didn't have to. She could very distinctly feel a stare on the back of her neck. The benefit of  
doubt was given to her lone roommate, and she came back with her eyes on her seat.

"SO." The human's hand involuntarily flinched at the small burst of volume that one word created. "YOU'VE CHOSEN TO GO WITH 'UNDECIDED' AS YOUR MAJOR?"

"Well, actually, I mean, it's not technically a major here.. just like, a status."

"...OH." He twirled his fork in the remaining spaghetti, picking up a mediocre fifty percent of the four noodles left on the plate. "...WHAT CLASSES DO YOU RECEIVE AS AN  
'UNDECIDED' STUDENT?"

"You, uh... well, you don't really get any special classes.. or anything like that. You just take care of your general education courses until you decide." Hopefully before you ended  
up becoming a liberal arts major. 

The conversation seemed to be lacking. Maybe she should say something else. 

"So.. what major did you have?"

"I'M DELIGHTED BY YOUR CURIOUSITY, HUMAN! I'VE CHOSEN THE MAJOR THAT WILL BEST SUIT MY ARRAY OF TALENTS! MECHATRONICS!"

"Oh?" She sipped at her soda. "You into computers and stuff?" To be frank, she had no idea what a mechatronics major would do.

"THERE'S FAR MORE TO IT THAN THAT. WITH A MECHATRONICS DEGREE, I CAN FURTHER HONE MY SKILL AT TRAP-MAKING, AND SELL MY INVENTIONS TO THE PUBLIC!"

"....." She was pretty sure that wasn't a conventional use of the degree. "...That's cute.. I mean, that's really.. interesting."

"NYEH.. WHY THANK YOU, KIND HUMAN!"

"O'Sii."

"...KIND O'SII!"

"Are you done with your spaghetti?"

"HM? OH! YES I.. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAD BACK?"

"Yeah."  
\----  
Their dorm building was so close. In just a minute, the two of them would be back in their room, and while Papyrus and his friends did whatever it was they did, and O'Sii would finally be able to attend to some very important matters. The door was coming into sight, but there was some skinny girl in a scarf standing next to it. Despite the fact that a pair of earbuds were stuffed into her ears, her music was playing loud and clear for the two of them to hear. As they closed the distance between themselves and the entrance, the music inexplicably became louder. 

Did she just see the girl's thumb come off the upper volume button? 

Now that her face had becom clearer, O'Sii could see that her eyes were closed. The girl's subtly head bobbing suddenly became that much more exaggerated. 

...Okay.

O'Sii had to draw her eyes away when she realized the girl was peeking at the two of them from the corner of her eye. They couldn't have gotten in soon enough. It didn't seem  
that Papyrus had anything to say about the scene they just saw. 

"SO, WHAT CLASSES DO YOU HAVE TOMORROW?"

O'Sii's hand slipped from the guardrail as they walked up the stairs. "...." The names of her classes didn't come to her right away. "...Ah... English Composition I.. College Algebra...  
Intro to Anthropology-" 

"I'M IN THAT ONE!" Papyrus shouted. "HOW LUCKY YOU ARE!"

How lucky she was.

"Uh.. yeah, so.. that's it for that day."

"I HAVE ARGUMENT AND DEBATE AT NINE TOMORROW! IS YOUR CLASS ANYWHERE NEAR THAT TIME?"

"Yeah, mine's at nine, too."

"THEN YOU SHOULD MEET UP WITH MY BROTHER AND I FOR BREAKFAST TOMORROW! THE CAFETERIA OPENS AT EIGHT!"

O'Sii took the door to their hall by the handle and swung it open for the both of them to walk through. "Well, um.." Would she have time for that? Originally, she was going to get up by then.. and if she followed her plans for tonight, that would leave her with exactly seven hours of sleep, but not if she got up earlier. Maybe she could get ready in thirty minutes and go to breakfast then.. that would still be six and a half hours. 

"HUMAN?"

"...Sure."

"GREAT!" 

They'd need a key to get in. Luckily, that was in her wallet, which she had pulled out from her satchel...

"...HUMAN?"

...Shit. He was looking at her wallet in confusion. "Hey, listen.. I found this just as soon as you paid for me meal, and I'm really sorry..."

"THAT'S QUITE ALRIGHT, HUMAN! EVERYONE MAKES THE OCCASIONAL MISTAKE. YOU CAN MAKE IT UP BY BUYING FOR ME SOMETIME, SHOULD I FORGET MY OWN WALLET!"

"Right, thanks for understanding."

The commons area was full of activity when the two of them arrived. The TV was still on and running, with some weird game show on. 'Dino' was sitting there with Sans, while  
'Fishy' got herself something to eat from the fridge. 

"hey papyrus, got your show on for ya."

Papyrus rushed past O'Sii and plopped himself down in front of the television. "HOORAY! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS ALL DAY!"

Hurr hurr, he made a rhyme.

After looking at the scene for another moment, O'Sii turned and unlocked the door to her own bedroom. She was satisfied with the sound of the door clicking shut behind her. Well. In just a few more hours, when everyone was asleep, she would begin what she had planned.


	3. Safe Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> O'Sii needs a safe place to put her shit into.

"Mmpphh... goodnight, Un-Bun..." a nasally voice murmured through the walls. One could hear everything through these walls. Everything. She had heard everything for the past hour, and she supposed that she would hear everything for the rest of this semester, too. 

Well, at least now she knew for sure that they were a couple.

Picking through the bin that housed her supplies, she fished out a rather eye-catching book that had been tucked away in the very center. The cover was a burnt umber color, with borderlines of the cooler colors of the rainbow adorning it; teal, cyan, and magenta, in that order. A pale, yellow symbol, a cloaked figure grasping at a circle with squiggles all around it. It seemed to imply that the object in question was emitting a bright light.

She had always hated that stupid design.

There was a little bookmark inside, with a little character from a show that she couldn't recall the name of. Opening it up to the page it held the place of, O'Sii put a slender finger on the title of the leftmost page. It wasn't the most ornate, but it was written with straight, perfect letters of consistent pressure. It looked as if it were done in ink. 

It said 'SPACE OF HOLDING'.

Underneath it were three lines, each listed numerically. The first line listed a variety of objects, or rather, materials. One such example was 'elastomer', which was initially hard to figure out the meaning of. But in parentheses, after that strange term, was the word 'eraser'. There were several other similar words, all of which she happened to have right here in this room. She got up, and gave the bedroom door handle an experimental twist. It didn't budge. She then walked back over to her supply bin, and pulled a few things out from one of the bottom corners, then shut the bin. Ripping open a packet, she let its contents fall onto the bin's plastic lid, right along side the little gum eraser. Finally, she set a little bottle of vinegar next to the little row of supplies she made. In a way, it almost looked adorable. 

One by one, she set the nails up into two rows of five, so that they made a small rectangle. She grabbed the vinegar. No, wait. She set the vinegar down, and double-checked the book. Oh, thank god. She was actually supposed to recite this sentence, first. Shit. She didn't want to end up with a mess and a room smelling like vinegar.  
"Balsheeba.... alter physics, alter reality, alter the husk I inhabit to become one with this spell..." The tilt of her hand was an automatic motion. Pungent liquid poured inside of the nails, but it did not flow through them. It rose higher and higher, until it reached the tips of the metal points. The dim light overhead cast a glimmer over the pool of vinegar. The eraser was next to be used. Holding it between a forefinger and thumb, O'Sii placed it in the center of the nail tips, and sat back on her knees.

"h a v e a s e c r e t p l a c e"

Good god, that never failed to give her the most severe chills. "..thank you.. above my bed is good." And it complied. There was a space, above her bed, where it placed the secret place. All she had to do now was.. use it. It was hers.. why else would she make it? So she could sit there and not have a place to store everything she kept to herself? Have a.. have an inspector come in and just.. find everything?

She stood up and approached her bed. How high was it? The space? She didn't want to hit her head every morning.. god, this wasn't a good idea. Was it even there? Was this some hallucination? Was she delusional? Was everything she had done the handiwork of a raving lunatic? A deluded young adult seeking purpose in life? Her hand shot forward. It stopped. Right at the edge of the secret space. Oh-h god, it was there. Oh.. thank god.. A snort whiffed through her nostrils. So, she wasn't crazy.. this was real. She was perfectly reasonable to have returned to this stupid.. childhood religion.. cult.. whatever it could be called. It had a name, but she never really liked thinking of it.

Oh! And now she could get rid of this thing in her bin before anyone found it and turned her in, oh thank god... Her hand went for a dive inside of the bin after she popped back open the lid, and fished out something wrapped with layers upon layers of toilet paper. And smelled like it had a gallon of air freshener sprayed onto it. It was a hand. A dead persons hand. She happened upon this little piece of corpse after the flooding that troubled her hometown one year. After an hour or so of mulling it over, she had decided to pick it out from the muddy shore of the river that skirted the downtown. It looked extremely old, and just like horrible tragedies, once it had happened long enough ago, you lose whatever respect you had for what was left. Whether it was in the form of a cruel, sick joke... or in this case, picking it up and taking it home with you. And it wasn't like she was just going to keep it with her for shits and giggles, she told herself. With her knowledge of the ancient spells, she could enchant it into a wishing hand. Any wish, so long as it wasn't too extravagant, could be fulfilled.

And now that she had a 'safe place', no one would ever find out that she had it in her room. If it turned out that this wishing spell didn't work, she'd probably fucking kill herself for desecrating this person's hand.

She'd been staring at this pile of toilet paper and flesh long enough. Time to get this in the hidey-hole. Now... she was pretty sure she just had to put this in the little space, but.. how? Did she have to open it? Could she feel for a handle? Maybe she just had to...

Her hand disappeared into the space completely.

NO NO THAT'S UNNATURAL NO her mind expressed, but despite the strange shock burning through her veins, and making her feel light-headed, she kept her hand in there. Taking a deep, soothing breath, she looked down, and placed her other hand underneath the space. To her surprise, nothing fell into it. The hand that wasn't hers stayed inside of the little box of nothing above her bed. How relieving. 

Taking her book, which had been resting on the bin lid that she had placed on the end of her bed, she stuffed it into the magic space. Was there anything else she had that could be put in there? Not this stuff she just used for this spell; that had to be thrown away as soon as possible. The stuff she could use for future spells? That.. well, that stuff was pretty unassuming. It wouldn't be very wise to fill it up with unnecessary content.

.... No, she didn't want to look at any of this shit. 

Into the safe place it all went. Whenever she decided to pick this back up again, she could just.. pull that shit out and do another spell. Nothing she didn't need, though. She really didn't like to do this any more than she had to.

Why did she even do it? Sighing, O'Sii let herself find rest in the soft blanket that covered her bed. Anytime she reopened this, no matter how good of a day she thought she had; all of those good feelings would go away. It didn't matter how many times it happened, she'd always find herself coming back to the spells that everyone else she had known before seemed to find peace in completing. They went home with serenity written upon their faces. Knowing smiles seemed to be a shared trait with them.  


Meeting after meeting had convinced her that fellowship wasn't doing anything for her. But what seemed to be silently agreed upon was this: What you thought you felt, wasn't what you truly felt. You needed fellowship whether you thought it was doing you good or not. Things never added up in her head just right when Balsheeba was involved. Maybe Balsheeba didn't like that she wasn't involved in the singing anymore. Or the group incantations. Those never really achieved any magical affects that she could perceive. And anytime she asked about it, she never got a straight answer. 

But if he really didn't like it.. why did he complete the spell for her? Her stern face became lax as her efforts were concentrated into solving this conundrum.  


It was a conundrum unsolved. Sleep claimed her before she could consider it.


End file.
